Celibacy's stain will remain when the party is over

As crowds of fervent young Catholics descend on Sydney, up rises
Anthony Jones to remind us of the running sore of clerical sexual
abuse and the cover-ups by the church elite.

For all the joy the World Youth Day event will bring to
thousands of pilgrims, it cannot disguise the critical situation of
the Catholic Church in Australia. The average priest is in his 60s,
church attendance has plummeted, ordinary Catholics flout the ban
on contraceptives and the legacy of sexual abuse by priests is
still raw.

The issue of priestly celibacy cannot be ignored. Celibacy was
once the source of a priest's high standing and special aura. Now
it is the rot undermining the church. Celibacy is the common
denominator in the twin crises of sex abuse scandals and declining
priest numbers.

When the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, wrote a
deceptive letter to Jones, dismissing his allegations of sexual
assault against a known serial abuser, Father Terence Goodall, it
was on the grounds no one else had complained - and the sex had
been consensual. (Jones had a different version, accepted by the
church investigator, which the cardinal ignored.)

You might jump to the conclusion from this response that Pell
thinks it is all right for priests to have sex as long as it is
consensual. He makes no reference in his letter to the priest's vow
of celibacy, the gravity of breaking it and the special trust
people place in priests because of it - at least in 1982 when the
events occurred.

But of course you would be wrong. The church hierarchy has not
moved an inch on celibacy. I am no theologian - I'm a rank outsider
- but I read the accounts from all over the world of priests and
lay people begging the church to change its ban on married priests,
and to slowly open its doors to women.

People want to examine whether the unique celibacy of the
all-male priesthood is a factor in its record of sexual misconduct,
and whether making celibacy optional would attract more men to the
priesthood. The church had maintained pedophilia has nothing to do
with celibacy. Celibacy does not make a pedophile, it is true, and
marriage does not cure one. One infamous Boston pedophile priest
continued to abuse children after he left the priesthood and
married.

But the issue of celibacy is still highly relevant to the
troubles afflicting the church. Celibacy so narrowed the pool of
people willing to be priests it appears to have led to
disproportionate numbers of sexually immature and confused people,
and self-denying homosexuals and pedophiles, entering the
seminaries.

As well, until recently the aura celibacy conferred on priests
allowed them easy access to children and young people, even more so
than teachers, scout leaders and coaches. Priests were presumed to
be especially disciplined by their code of sexual abstinence. Their
word was so credible parents might distrust their children's
accounts of abuse.

The aura of celibacy also facilitated the cover-ups. A church
had even more to lose than other institutions caught up in sex
abuse scandals. As Garry Wills, the author of Why I Am A
Catholic, wrote: "Many parents have kept silent after church
authorities begged them 'not to damage the church' The aura
of celibacy was definitely an advantage to the predator from the
outset of his crimes. It then became a further advantage when
church authorities provided him protection."

The church's recent efforts to scapegoat homosexuals, and to
introduce measures to screen them out of seminaries, will not solve
problems that stem from a policy of mandatory sexual repression.
Homosexual pedophilia is not the church's only problem. Priests
also have sex with consenting adults, in an atmosphere of secrecy
conducive to psychological damage, blackmail and cynicism. A 1995
book, The Sex Life Of The Clergy, by the Spanish
psychologist Pepe Rodriguez, says 60 per cent of Spanish priests
were sexually active, more than half with women, 20 per cent with
men, 14 per cent with minor males and 12 per cent with minor
females. The citadel of celibacy is crumbling, whether the sex is
consensual or not, with homosexuals or children.

The National Council of Priests in Australia, representing
almost 1700 priests, petitioned the Vatican in 2005 asking it to
allow priests to marry. More than 17,000 Mass-going Catholics
signed a similar petition to Australian bishops. The pleas were
made on the basis that drastic action was needed to restore the
number of priests, which has fallen dramatically over 30 years
while the Anglican and Protestant churches have not suffered any
significant shortage of trainees.

The unworkable policy of celibacy began in the 12th century as a
way to stop married priests from passing on property to their
children instead of to the church. It has done great damage.

A clerical elite that is anti-sex, anti-birth control,
misogynist and homophobic, and will not let priests have partners,
is in a crisis of its own making. When the party is over, the rot
will still be there. To many inside the church, making celibacy
optional has become a matter of urgency.

1215658124185-smh.com.auhttp://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/celibacys-stain-will-remain-when-the-party-is-over/2008/07/11/1215658124185.htmlsmh.com.auSydney Morning Herald2008-07-12Celibacy's stain will remain when the party is overAdele HorinOpinionhttp://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2008/07/04/th_adelehorin_index-lgthumb__90x60.jpg9060http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2008/07/04/th_adelehorin_mobile__240x160.jpg9060